By Bethie Peltola

Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God. Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor.
1 Peter 2:16-17

Being nailed to a tree, naked, mocked at and scorned, has to be one of the worst forms of suffering. Throughout history we hear of stories of those who have met their end in a similar manner.

For Jesus his suffering went one step further than excruciating physical pain (Psalm 22:14-15), he saw and felt demons prowling around him (Psalm 22:13-14), like dogs, religious leaders and pagan rulers tormented him, (Psalm 22:16-18), passing his clothes around and brusing his body in agonising torture (Isaiah 53:3-9). Perhaps the worst of all agonies was experiencing the turning of His Father’s face away from him. Something that had never happened in all eternity and never will again.

It becomes more poignant when we realise that this event happened because of us.

For us Christ died, so that we can be free.

The Father could not look on His Son Jesus in those cruel moments, because Jesus had died in our place enshrouded by our sin (Psalm 22:1, Isaiah 53:4-6, Matthew 27:46). His death, then the conquering of it, is the source of our freedom.

Many bulls have surrounded Me;
Strong bulls of Bashan have encircled Me.
They gape at Me with their mouths,
Like a raging and roaring lion.
Psalm 22:12-13

He was oppressed and He was afflicted,
Yet He opened not His mouth;
Isaiah 53:7

Our short and temporary troubles seem minor in comparison, our churches forcibly turned into mosques, our speech muzzled from speaking truth, our borders insecure, our cultures at risk, our categories of identities challenged. Our freedoms are always challenged. Cruelty continues at the hands of other people in many communities and countries. Some wish for unlimited freedom, or freedoms for a minority group, which then stamp on other people’s comforts. Others wish for our current freedoms to be diminished, or work to control a media narrative, imposing an elitist view. Regardless, someone’s freedoms are curbed.

So how can we live as people of freedom? What is true freedom? How can we experience it regardless of what others impose upon us, or what society demands of us?

The Bible is full of saints who have learned to live a life of freedom, regardless of circumstances.

Daniel, and his friends, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah are wonderful examples of living with freedom in captivity. The later three were robbed of their names. Given Babylonian pagan names, some referring to pagan gods: Shadrach, Mischech and Abednego. Their very identities replaced by pagan identities imposed upon them. In wisdom they sought out a purer life-style to their fellow captives. In faithfulness they continued in prayer to our Heavenly Father. In courage, they refused to bow down to the god’s of Babylon and to its pagan King. They remained grounded and firmly rooted to the true King of Heaven - the Lord Jesus.

That wisdom, found through prayer and trust in Jesus transformed their situation, their fellow captives and their pagan King. One King, Darius, likely related to the Kurdish people of today, trusted Jesus with his life, and that of his nation, when Daniel’s faith protected him from the jaws of hungry lions - a punishment that had been inflicted on to Daniel via the kings lust for power and god-like status.

Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah walked with Jesus each day and in person when they found themselves in a pit of fire, so hot those throwing them in were killed. Their human king - at whose orders they had found themselves in such a predicament - transfixed in awe as he saw the faith of those three men lead to the very sighting of Christ himself, who had come down to walk with them, preserving their lives in that furnace of unjust punishment.

And what about Queen Esther, chosen to be the favoured bride of a King with many concubines, and a pagan deity. Her beauty enthralled him, but her life and the lives of all her people were in jeopardy. She risked her freedom, and her life, to save her people. First by marrying the king, then by approaching him when not invited. In Biblical wisdom her Uncle guided her to rescue a whole peoples, confounding the sly schemes of evil people.

Ezra and Nehemiah, wisemen and workers in the courts of yet another pagan king, this time in Persia. Though part of the people in captivity, they lead their Kings to treat the captives with honour and respect, decreeing freedom for all the peoples to return to their homelands and rebuild. A King who began to act Christianly because of the service and behaviour of his captive workers, whose true status stood in the freedom of Christ, not captivity.

Kings, communities, countries and nations transformed through trust in, prayer to, and wisdom from the Lord.

These ancient saints, living 2500 years ago or more, guide us to do likewise. The example of lives help us to live as free people when our freedoms are taken from us. It is how Christian prisoners and martyrs have been able to lift up eyes of joy, when their lives are being taken from them. It is how we live in freedom, when our troubled lands rise up to hurt us. Keeping our eyes focused on Christ, the true King, walking in the light of his teaching, our societies can be transformed! Better still, our hearts and minds will continually be lifted up to a far better freedom - an eternal experience of joy, a life fulfilled, no matter the circumstances.

For us Christ died so that we can be free.

Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him;
He has put Him to grief.
When You make His soul an offering for sin,
He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days,
And the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand.
He shall see the labor of His soul, and be satisfied.
By His knowledge My righteous Servant shall justify many,
For He shall bear their iniquities.
Therefore I will divide Him a portion with the great,
And He shall divide the spoil with the strong,
Because He poured out His soul unto death,
And He was numbered with the transgressors,
And He bore the sin of many,
And made intercession for the transgressors.
Isaiah 53:10-12

For us Christ died to give us life.

My praise shall be of You in the great assembly;
I will pay My vows before those who fear Him.
The poor shall eat and be satisfied;
Those who seek Him will praise the Lord.
Let your heart live forever!

All the ends of the world
Shall remember and turn to the Lord,
And all the families of the nations
Shall worship before You.
For the kingdom is the Lord’s,
And He rules over the nations.
Psalm 22:25-28